Computing systems can include multiple computing components such as servers, desktop PCs, laptops, and workstations, among other peripheral devices, (e.g., printing devices, facsimile devices, and scanning devices). In some systems, these components can be networked together across a local area network (LAN) and/or wide area network (WAN). A LAN and/or WAN uses clients and servers that have network-enabled operating systems such as Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix.
An example of a client includes a user's workstation, among other types of devices. Servers can hold programs and data that are shared by the clients in a computing network. Servers can come in a wide range of capacities and costs, from PC servers to mainframes. Peripherals, such as a printing device, facsimile device, and/or scanning device can be attached locally to a workstation or to a server and be shared by network users.
Data transfer between components over a network can be managed by a transport protocol such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), among others. The Internet Protocol (IP) layer in TCP/IP contains a network address and allows messages to be routed to a different network or subnetwork (subnet). The physical transmission of such data can be performed by an access method, typically via Ethernet, which can be provided on the motherboard or in the network adapter cards (NICs) plugged into the network devices. The actual communications path can be a twisted pair or optical fiber cable that interconnects each network adapter.
Network components can include Ethernet ports for home use, not just to create a small home network, but to connect to the Internet via a DSL or cable modem among other uses. An Ethernet port typically can support both 10BaseT at 10 megabits per second (Mbps) and 10BaseT at 100 Mbps, among other data transmission modes.
Network components in a LAN and/or WAN can include hardware components, such as trunk lines, switches, routers, hubs, servers, and databases. LANs and/or WANs can also include instructions such as software, application modules, firmware, and various other types of executable instructions.
Network components such as switches, hubs, and routers, for example, are used to distribute and restrict traffic within workgroups of a network. Network components can also provide filtering of inter or intra network traffic for security purposes and policy management. These sorts of network component functionality can also be incorporated into other components within a network environment, such as a file server, a load balancing device, or other such network appliance.
Any number of network components, such as those mentioned above, may be included in a network. These network components will be generally referred to herein as network devices. When such network devices are added to the network, the device typically has to be configured for use in the network environment.
This typically means configuring the software, firmware, and other instructions on the device to communicate with the other network devices. This configuration typically is accomplished by creating a configuration file for each device or port by typing in the configuration information into the file manually. Such configuration methods may be time consuming, particularly for network administrators that do not add devices to their network often. They may also be error prone since the user will type the configuration information in for each device or port.